Three sister acts not to be missed

The following three movies centre on the identity struggles of memorable black female characters. They convey in a unique and innovative manner, the ways in which the forces of tradition, history, memory and desire intertwine and force us into sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes liberating reckoning. The struggle for personal expression and freedom occurs within broader communities whose expectations and practices are often forged in the crucible of violence, intolerance and prejudice.

Art house essential

Daughters of the Dust — Mubi.com

Julie Dash’s 1991 debut remains an magic-realist masterpiece that, criminally, hasn’t led to the pioneering African-American filmmaker producing as many films as the distinctiveness of her breakthrough promised.

Set in the world of the Gullah people — descendants of West African slaves who have forged a unique cultural identity, including deep connections to African spiritual and communal practice — in the low country of South Carolina, the film is a reflection on the lives of its strong, conflicted female protagonists, all of whom are dealing with the push and pull of tradition and modernity.

Cinematographer Arthur Jaffa has a dreamlike eye for the location and the deep emotional bonds of the characters to their faraway roots. The film’s influence has cast a shadow on popular culture imagery through the decades, including most recently as a reference in Beyoncé’s Lemonade album.

Dash’s empathy for the women at the heart of narrative, set at the dawn of the 20th century, shines through in every frame, while her complex weaving of ideas about heritage, identity and the tyrannies of an unjust history echo the postcolonial and magical-realist literary work of seminal writers like Toni Morrison.

In a world where African-American women are increasingly finding opportunities for long-suppressed creative self-expression and telling their much needed stories, it’s a shame that Dash, a pioneer of that movement, hasn’t had more opportunities to expand upon the memorable vision and talents she demonstrated with this remarkable work.

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Stone cold classic

Mississippi Masala — YouTube

Mira Nair’s second feature film sees the Indian-born director taking a long journey from the streets of her 1988 debut Salaam Bombay! for this 1991 steamy, romantic dramedy of cross-cultural identity friction and passions in the US.

The film begins in Uganda, where we’re introduced to an Indian family who are, like all other Asians in the country at the time of Idi Amin’s dictatorship, summarily expelled after decades of assimilation and contribution to the country’s development and cultural life.

Moving to the American South, where they gradually overcome the trauma of their abrupt end to their former life, the family gradually becomes a typical American immigrant story of hard work and entrepreneurship. They open a liquor store in Mississippi and see their 20-something daughter Mina (Sarita Choudhory) displaying many of the expected traits and ambitions of an ordinary young small-town American woman.

Mina meets and falls hard for local lothario Demetrius (Denzel Washington) and what follows is an erotically charged and identity-politics fraught relationship. Mina is caught between her desire for Demetrius and the promise he offers for an escape from the confines of small-town life, and the expectations and traditions of her parents and the broader Indian immigrant community.

Shot by master cinematographer Edward Lachman, the film is a palette of golds and oranges that evoke both the subcontinent origins of Mina’s family and the steamy passions of her love affair. Nair’s deft direction also smartly avoids the expected focus on identity and the push-pull of identity questions. Instead, she offers a more nuanced exploration of the broader question of how to balance one’s personal desires with the expectations of one’s community. The result makes it a pioneering work in a genre that’s since come to hit so many familiar notes. 

TRAILER: 

The Diamond in the Rough

Beloved — Disney Plus

Produced by and starring Oprah Winfrey, director Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of the seminal, Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison manages to convey much of the horror and gothic power of its source material, thanks to strong performances and an earnest dedication by everyone involved in doing justice to Morrison’s vision.

Featuring a blistering performance from Thandi Newton and strong support from veteran Danny Glover, the film is a heartfelt adaptation of a tragic and evocative story about the gruesome violence of slavery and the long shadows it casts over generations. Demme takes the opportunity to exercise the magical elements and lean into the surrealistic horror at its core, and the film remains a pivotal depiction of the both the physical and psychological realities of slavery.

It’s not an overly literal adaptation, thankfully, and that’s ultimately what makes it a unique visual experience while still managing to evoke the poetry and prescience of Morrison’s brilliant prose and storytelling.

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